Modelling for Vogue to a pub landlord: These are the Race Across the World contestants’ day jobs

Here’s what they do when they aren’t trekking across Canada

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Race Across the World is back on our screens after a three year break and I couldn’t be happier.

Yes, Canada is not the ideal location. I’m not sure seeing the contestants all getting the same bus together is the epitome of racing across the world and endlessly watching teams hitching lifts from petrol stations is a bit monotonous. But what this series lacks in racing excitement, it makes up for in buckets of heart and warmth.

Maybe it’s because unlike every other reality tv programme pumped out in the past few years, these are real people. They feel relatable. You could go for a pint with them. And yet despite the down-to-earth nature of the contestants, I’m so used to seeing them kitted out in their rain jacket and rucksacks, I’ve almost forgetten they have real jobs.

When they aren’t trekking 16,000 kilometres in the space of 50 days across Canada, here’s what the contestants of Race Across the World series three do for day jobs:

Ladi and Monique

via BBC

Ladi works as the head of sport for a consultancy company which focuses on organisational change. His company, AKD Solutions, describes Ladi as an “expert voice for sport”. Alongside his consultancy job, he is a leisure and physical activity development manager for the London borough of Hackney. He’s previously written about how London can better engage black and ethnically diverse communities in sport.

25-year-old Monique is the youngest contestant in this series’ Race Across the World. She works as an event manager in London. However Monique has also worked as model and is represented by modelling agency 777. In October, she was featured as model in Photo Vogue.

Cathie and Tricia

via BBC

Cathie is the co-director of a local pharmacy business. The two pharmacies are located in south Wales, just outside the town of Bridgend. Previously Cathie worked as an office manager for high street fashion chain, Next.

Cathie co-directs a local pharmacy business in south Wales (via Google Maps)

Filming of this year’s series took place last year and since coming back, Tricia has joined the Royal National Institute of Blind People as a community connections co-ordinator for the south-west. Tricia, who is from Devon, has uveitis, a condition which affects the inside of the eye and she describes as “looking through a dark cloud with spots on it”.

She praised the show’s producers, saying they treated the condition “in a sympathetic way but without making a massive deal about it”.

Mobeen and Zainib

via BBC

University sweethearts, Mobeen and Zainib are both doctors within the NHS. Both studying medicine at Glasgow University, Mobeen, who graduated in 2015, works as an orthopaedic surgeon, whilst Zainib is a psychiatrist.

Claudia and Kevin

via BBC

Claudia and Kevin are both from Southampton. 27-year-old Claudia works in marketing for a company called Kingfisher. The multinational is the parent company for DIY brands like B&Q and Screwfix.

Former publican Kevin, previously ran the Dog & Crook pub in Brambridge, which is near Eastleigh. Since leaving the pub business, he works as a marine canopy maker.

Michael and Marc

via BBC

Gone before we really had to chance to see them flourish, brothers Michael and Marc are from the West Midlands. Michael works as a manager in children’s services. Older brother, Marc is a lift operator based in Tamworth.

Featured image via BBC.

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